Infrared (IR) thermography systems are used in a variety of settings to capture, record and/or track temperature information. For example, thermography systems are used in building inspections for analyzing the thermal integrity of building envelopes, in electrical inspections for identifying abnormal temperatures of electrical components, e.g., motor windings, switchgear, transformers, etc., in mechanical inspections for identifying abnormal temperatures of mechanical components, e.g., rotational bearings or other components subject to frictional heating and in the monitoring of thermal processing and related equipment, e.g., kilns, metal forming equipment, furnaces, etc., for ensuring the processing temperatures remain within tolerances, among other things.
Conventional state-of-the-art thermography systems typically include one or more IR cameras, a computer, e.g., personal or laptop computer, and software that runs on each of the camera and computer for providing the camera and computer with various functionality relating to the capture, storage, transfer and manipulation of thermographic (and often corresponding visual) images and accompanying data within and between the camera and computer. An example of a conventional state-of-the-art IR/visible imaging camera is the VisIR® Ti200 camera available from Thermoteknix Systems Ltd., Cambridge, England. An example of conventional state-of-the-art IR/visible imaging camera control and thermography software is the Condition RED® software, also available from Thermoteknix Systems. Copies of brochures describing functionality of conventional versions of the VisIR® Ti200 camera and Condition RED® software are attached to the above-identified U.S. Provisional Patent Application as Exhibits A and B, respectively.
An important use of thermography systems is the tracking of a thermal condition of various items, or “assets,” e.g., equipment, structures or components thereof, over a period of time as part of an ongoing monitoring program. In order to provide robust and meaningful condition monitoring, it is highly desirable that the images of each asset and the corresponding thermographic data acquired over time be captured from the same camera location and orientation and using the same camera and thermographic tool settings. Various schemes have been devised for locating a thermographic imaging camera at the same location at which a prior image was captured. One such scheme includes providing written instructions via a display on the camera itself. These instructions describe, typically in a prior thermographer's own words, the physical location of the camera when that thermographer captured the prior image. Another devised scheme includes providing a thermographic camera with a global positioning system (GPS) device that allows a thermographer to position the camera repeatedly in the same location using GPS data.
Each of these schemes has drawbacks. Neither of the schemes mentioned is highly accurate, leading to imprecision in actual camera location over a number of images. To correct for this imprecision, various tools, such as the PosiTrak® post-capture image alignment tool available from Thermoteknix, have been developed. The use of such tools, however, adds time and complexity to the processing of a series of images. Another drawback of conventional thermographic image alignment schemes is the lack of a convenient way to display the desired tool settings for capturing the next in a series of conditional monitoring images.
Once a series of thermographic images has been captured, downloaded to a computer and aligned with a prior image as needed, it is useful to create trend plots of the temperature data contained in those images. Typically, these plots involve determining one or more desired temperatures, e.g., maximum, minimum or average temperature or temperature at a desired location, for each of the images and then plotting these temperatures against time. Retrieving the desired temperature(s) of interest from each image typically involves applying one or more thermographic tools, such as a spot temperature tool, a maximum temperature tool, a minimum temperature tool and an area tool, to each of the thermographic images desired to be included in the trend plot. Generally, these tools extract the corresponding respective temperature data from the image file. For example, a spot tool determines the temperature at that exact spot on the image, a maximum temperature tool determines the maximum temperature represented by the thermographic image and so on. Locating the tool(s) on the respective thermographic images is generally a painstaking process that requires each image to be worked individually.